1. Field
The aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to a sports apparatus, for example to sports apparatus including one or more projectiles, for example one or more balls, wherein the projectiles include one or more sensors and a wireless communication interface, and a data processing arrangement also equipped with a wireless interface, for example implemented via a smart phone and/or a personal computer and/or a remote server with data processing functionality, wherein the one or more sensors of the one or more projectiles provide sensor signals indicative of movements of the one or more projectiles, wherein the sensor signals are communicated to the data processing arrangement for analysis and recording. Moreover, the present disclosure relates to methods of operating aforesaid sports apparatus for recording movement of the one or more projectiles for subsequent analysis and reporting. Furthermore, the present disclosure relates to software products recorded on machine-readable data storage media, wherein the software products are executable upon computing hardware for implementing aforesaid methods.
2. Brief Description of Related Developments
It is well known to track movement of one or more projectiles, for example one or more balls, utilized when playing a sports game, for example football or basketball, to determine statistical information relating to the sports game. Such statistical information can include a number of goals or points scored, and performance of one or more players of the sports game. Such tracking has often been implemented using cameras, personnel collating statistics manually as well as using sensors included in the one or more projectiles. However, known approaches for analysing movement of the one or more projectiles are not well developed, such that inadequate analysis of sports games utilizing the one or more projectiles is not presently achievable.
In US Patent Publication No. US2012/0058845A1, there is described a basketball which incorporates motion sensors. The motion sensors include, for example, one or more accelerometers, one or more angular rate gyroscopic sensors and one or more magnetometers. In the application, it is elucidated that sensor signals from the motion sensors can be analyzed to generate statistical results, but the application is devoid of detail of how the statistical analysis can be performed in practice.
There arises therefore a problem that known apparatus for providing analysis of trajectories of one or more projectiles associated with sports events are not sufficiently evolved and do not provide statistical analysis to a fullest extent which is potentially feasible to achieve.